16 Again in Azabu-Juban
by JanusDaGuardian
Summary: Cory Hudson is a gifted college boy from our world and timeline who one day is mysteriously sent back in time to the world of Sailor Moon in Tokyo, Japan and unwillingly becomes involved in a brand-new struggle between the pretty Guardians of Love and Justice and a cunning new enemy that plans to rid the world of its protectors once and for all.


16 Again in Azabu-Juban  
A Sailor Moon Fan-Fiction by JanusDaGuardian  
Chapter 1: Welcome to Azabu-Juban

*Disclaimer: I don't own the Sailor Moon franchise. Sailor Moon is owned Toei Animation and Naoko Takeuchi. Please support the official release.*

The snow had already arrived on that day. Christmas lights were strung from every balcony and windowsill, fluffed with fake evergreen garland and tied into a mesh of red, gold, and silver ribbons and other miscellaneous, holiday decorations.

It was a shame that the dorms were ialmost/i deserted with the majority of the elite school's students paying their well-earned visits to their families. One of the exceptions was sitting at a small desk in the middle of a dorm-room that was almost devoid of clutter or dust, scratching a list of items that he needed to buy on a piece, items that he could only get once the inconvenience of iday-offs/i subsided two days later. He was a college senior by the name of Cory Hudson, who wore a pair of denim jeans and a baggy steel-gray hoodie to compensate for the recent, unexplained decrease in room temperature.

Despite his sloppy-looking exterior and his blond, unkept hair, Cory was an honors-student and a prime target for the "purely-innocent" jeers from both the jealous and the stupid amongst his peers. Clearly, even in the top schools in the nation, like Cambridge, Massachusetts, the smartest and most mature of the bunch still had to put up with the not-so-much of the student population being mixed-in with the geniuses and the rich. A prime example of the less-agreeable type were in the next room over, blaring what sounded like Tran-Siberian Orchestra Christmas music over a powerful sound-system. Ironically though, that wasn't the loudest sound to reverberate through the walls.

Obnoxious laughter, off-beat stomping, and icolorful/i conversations shared between both sexes rose just over the music's threshold, loud enough and just as slurred and slippery as their minds. These were the sounds that prompted Cory to pound the wall with his fist.

"Hey! Keep it down over there!"

"Oh, shut up, Hudson! It's Christmas Eve! Give it a rest!"

"I could care less what day it is! This is a student dorm comprised of imore than/i just yourselves, and I can't hear myself think, you pricks!"

"Go somewhere quieter, then! We're having a blast over here, you douche!"

Cory sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Honestly... I arrange for a new dorm room every freaking semester, and I still end up next to a bunch of DRUNKEN HYENAS-!" He snorted. "Come to think of it, I'll bet Animal Control services would ilove/i to pick up this bunch..."

Cory smiled at the idea for a moment, but he knew that it would be very hard for iany/i branch of state or federal enforcement to make their way through the snowed-in area surrounding the college, and he doubted they'd be bored enough to answer a call for public annoyance. However, they'd probably come if they heard the men's main dormitory had minors of both sexes indulging in under-aged drinking...

A sudden knock on the door prompted an irritated sigh to escape the blond senior's chest as he got up to answer it.

What Cory learned soon after his initial arrival on campus was that being a nerd with a decent laptop, great test scores, and rumored-to-be well-off in terms of finances made enemies of the less-fortunate, and those iless-fortunate/i people occasionally took valuable possessions from other people without permission... Cory himself nearly became a victim, only he was able to catch the fellownow formerstudent in the act and prove that it was his laptop that was being taken. The next day, he requested that the dorm-master allow him to install extra security measures on his door, including three chains, and a pair of deadbolt locks with separate keys. It was a hassle to do the first time or two, and even more of a hassle to keep track of both keys with which to open the door each time, but by his third semester, he had gotten use to the installation process and the systematic, hiding-spot rotations, and he never had to worry about his laptop or his food money being swiped again.

Cory unlatched the deadbolts and pulled the door open as wide as the three chains would allow, which was just wide-enough to allow him to peer outside. When no stupid nor hostile faces to greet him from the front, Cory carefully slipped his head through the doorway to see if anyone was hiding off to the side like a bunch of elementary children.

The hallway was basically empty, save for the Christmas wreaths hanging from a few of the University students' dorm-room doors and a singular cardboard box. The latter was perfectly squared, surprisingly-uncovered, and perpetually sitting right outside his door. No ribbons, no parchment, or wrapping. It was just a package. A package without any stickers or markings to show where it had came from.

Undoing the chains on his door, Cory pulled the door open just a little bit wider and carefully took the package in hand before closing the door and set about securing his dorm once more. With the locks back in place, he walked straight to his desk and sat down in his "could-be-more-comfortable" chair, setting the box down on the scratched, wooden platform that was his desk, like it was being prepared for surgery, which was how Cory treated the package at first.

The box seemed completely devoid of the usual imperfections, such as ripples and wrinkles, water, and scratches from being carried by hand, and by truck, in and out of the worstor best, depending on the people asked-winter in ages. It was also rather small; Nothing like the clothing boxes used by clothing outlets. It was for this reason and the fact that the package had no return nor delivery address on its surface that Cory concluded that it had inot/i come from his step-parents.

Producing one of his dorm keys from his right-front pocket, Cory sawed through the taped edges on one side, allowing that same-side's flap to be undone as he lightly shook the box over his desk, worried that there might a mouse-trap or some other "clever" item to surprise his curious fingers. He was somewhat-surprised when he instead saw a black, unmarked disk plop onto his workspace, confined by a clear, unmarked CD case.

"What is this?" Cory turned the case end-over-end, studying the surface for anything unusual but couldn't find even a hint of scratch-marks. If it was a virus program, like Cory wondered, the guy that sent it seriously underestimated him. Just as he had gone out of his way to better-secure his dorm-room, he had endeavored to install the best anti-virus software he could find onto his computer to protect the class projects and notes he stored on his sacred hard drive.

The college senior's first thought was to toss the entire thing into the nearest waste basket. After all, he didn't know anyone on campus who'd send him a small piece of chocolate for Christmas, let alone a computer disk. Also, since the object had no markings or labels whatsoever, it wouldn't be a surprise if he found the disk was either empty or had a weak-surprise for his "immune"-computer.

On second thought, was getting pretty bored, and the mere thought of exploring the disk's contents seemed attractive, almost alluring in a way, even if the contents contained a a bunch of viruses. These were the thoughts that prompted the college senior to search a nearby drawer before pulling out a Toshiba laptop and setting it on his desk. Naturally, he had shut the computer off prior to storing it, so it took a couple minutes to reboot. Once on, he pressed the tiny switch on the right side, and the black-and-silver disk-tray popped-out, allowing him to snap the disk into place before pushing the tray closed again.

Another ten-seconds of impatient fingers tapping the wooden desk followed before the screen for the computer's Windows Media Player appeared and instantly went to its signature black-and-blue-shaded screen as it automatically began to play the contents of the disk. So far, the anti-virus software hadn't detected any bugs, and that was a good thing since the software was still running.

What Cory noticed right-off was that the seeker-bar, the one that allowed people to drag-and-hold to a certain segment of a disk while watching an applicable movie or audio recording, was either invisible or was not functioning properly since the remaining-time counter was at zero. There were seconds being counted on the left, the count-up timer which was keeping track of how long the video or audio file had been playing, but, again, there was no end-point or clear place in the track where one could skip to, which either meant the video had no pre-set length, or the video had no video whatsoever. There was also no sound or no picture, as if someone pressed "record" at the wrong time and recorded an unknown-length of time in complete darkness and silence.

This waste of a feature presentation lasted for about fifteen-seconds, then came a series of loud explosions that were so loud that Cory's right fingers shot for the volume keys on his keyboard to quickly lower the insanely-loud volume as he went to grab his set of noise-cancelling headphones out of the same drawer that he had gotten the laptop out of, all the while wondering why he hadn't pulled them out sooner.

With the sound-waves toned-down to a more-tolerable level, and the noise-cancelling headphones now over his ears, Cory could hear more than just explosions. There were shrieks and shouts of people in the background, sounds of searing-fast objects whizzing by, and loud splashes of water as an image slowly came into focus.

The picture was very grainy, like a poor satellite feed, except the camera angle was parallel to the ground, and it was moving in an unstable-fashion, like it was connected to someone's helmet. There were also buildings. Lots of them. Some as tall as skyscrapers, others as small as a town diner.

Wherever it was filmed, it was definitely a metro-area larger than any Cory had seen before. Much larger in scope than Cambridge. Shops, booths, and cafes, all lined with what appeared to be dozens if not hundreds of people. With the camera moving at such a fast pace, the young honors student couldn't quite make-out who or what these people were at first, nor what they were wearing, but he could tell that this had been filmedor was ibeing/i filmed- in real-time.

"JUPITER... OAK EVOLUTION!"

Hundreds of neon-green, razor sharp leaves embedded themselves into the cement, prompting the icamera-man/i to stop and turn about as three figures leaped from above, landing in the middle of the street amongst a large crowd of people, who, now that the camera had stopped moving, Cory deduced were Asian, based on the yellowish hues to their skin and their almond-shaped eyes. A majority of the people dressed uniformly, older men wearing pressed business suits, women of about the same age in a similar, yet more-feminine variance. The youth were more assorted. Casual for some, uniformed for others, and completely spontaneous for the rest, like they were dressed for Halloween.

Despite how unorthodox the latter may have dressed, the three figures were the ones who stood-out the most.

Before the camera-man stood three young-women. All three of them wore similar outfits of varying colors, similarly-cut mini-skirts, and golden headbands over their shadowed brows, which, due to the angle and degree of sunlight, hid the majority of their faces, the rest of their countenances obscured by the poor video-quality.

"How dare you terrorize this city on a beautiful day such as this," the one on the left said, who wore green and white outfit.

"Day like this should be used for rest and studying, but you have abolished that," the one on the right said, who wore a blue and white outfit .

"Even if the United Nations were to forgive you, I cannot," the center-most one shouted, who was dressed in an out of many colors, complete with a set of angelic white wings. "For love and justice, I am the Pretty Sailor Soldier... Sailor Moon!"

"Likewise, Sailor Mercury," the one on the right said.

"Likewise, Sailor Jupiter," the one on the left said.

"In the name of the Moon, we'll punish you!"

"'U.N.?' 'Name of the Moon?'" Cory blushed in embarrassment and smacked himself in the forehead. "Seriously, where have I heard those girls before... and that horrible monologue..."

A fight ensued on screen, the camera-man flinging what appeared to be circular blades towards the mini-skirted heroines as they leaped gracefully away... or at least the ones on the left and right leaped igracefully/i; The heroine one in the center dove to the side, doing what looked more like a belly-flop as the blades whizzed overhead.

Cory sat right in his seat, racking his mind for the worn pieces that slowly came back together. It was when he glanced towards the screen once more and saw the angel-winged heroine's face more clearly, a small, cute face, blue eyes, and long, blonde pigtails, that he remembered the heroine's name and, more importantly, the title of the show he was watching.

"Rebecca..." a wry smile crept across the senior's face. "I'm watching Sailor Moon, again..."

"VENUS..."

"MARS..."

The camera-man turned upwards towards the roof-tops of the district as two other heroines, one dressed in a red-and-white outfit holding a bow made of flames, the other in orange-and-white kissing her white-gloved hand, called out the name of their following attacks.

"LOVE AND BEAUTY SHOCK!"

"FLAME SNIPER!"

A spinning, glowing, yellow heart and an arrow made of glowing red flames soared towards the camera-man, narrowly missing him as he leaped to the side. Whoever the camera-man was, he was fast and athletic. Both of those qualities didn't save him for what happened next though.

"MERCURY... AQUA RHAPSODY!"

The camera-man turned just in time to see a cyclone of water crash into him, throwing him and the camera onto the ground, a gurgling hiss of what sounded like a vicious, drowning reptile following his descent.

"Sailor Moon! Now is your chance!"

The voice belonged to the heroine who'd just called-out her attack.

"Silver Moon..."

Based on the way the camera jostled, the camera-man struggled to move, but was unable to do so as Sailor Moon, as Cory now realized, called-out her final attack.

"... Crystal Power Kiss!"

The camera-man looked up just in time to see rays of brilliant yellow light stream from the direction of the angel-winged Sailor Soldier, prompting even Cory to protect his eyes as the camera-feed suddenly ceased.

After several moments of silence, Cory blinked, confused about the sudden stop to the video that, in his mind, was just getting good. "Wait. That's it? But I thought..." The blond-haired senior sighed and leaned backwards. "Oh well... It's not like I paid for the movie or anything."

Altogether, the video clip only lasted three, maybe four minutes, which was far too short to wear-down anyone's eyes, but for some reason, Cory couldn't help but feel his eyelids getting increasingly heavier as a whisper barely above the hearing-threshold flowed into his headset. Before long, he began nodding-off, his arms curling atop his wooden desk. Then, finally, his body slumped, laying his head to rest atop his soft, sleeved-forearms, all the while, the silent whisper reverberated throughout the mind.

Shingo Tsukino glanced down at his watch for the third time in six minutes as he tapped his foot impatiently on the tile floor next to his house's front door. He had already dressed in some decent clothes, choosing a pair of long, khaki, cargo shorts to go with his white T-shirt and blue-and-white, hooded jacket. His hair had been brushed, just like his Mom had instructed, and he already had his converse all-stars secured to his feet.

"That's it, Usagi! I'm leaving without you!"

"Shingo, don't be mean! I'm almost done!"

"Yeah, and that transfer student's bound to be at the bus stop by now! Mom said 4:10, and it's 4:15 right now!"

"I heard you! I heard you! Honestly, becoming a Junior-High student hasn't made you any more patient, has it?"

"And becoming a High School student apparently hasn't made you more responsible... or smarter for that matter..."

"Hey, I heard that!"

"Usagi, stop fighting with your brother and come down here already!" Shingo's Mom called. "Appearance is important, but punctuality is even more so! It would be very rude to make our guest wait, and I'm almost certain he'll be hungry after such a long flight."

"And I'm getting hungry hearing that iother people/i might be hungry, Usagi," Shingo added.

"All right! I'm coming!"

Cory Hudson woke up in a major daze, the sounds of many conversations and the hissing of vehicle brakes slowly pulling him out of his dream-like state.

"Minato-ward, Azabu-Juban! Watch your step!"

The location didn't sound familiar, but the phrase itself told Cory that he was on a bus, which also explained the faint smell of diesel fumes in air and the clacking of shoes on ridged, metal floor panels.

"Excuse me, young man. This is your stop, isn't it?"

Plagued by incredible grogginess, Cory opened his eyes and rolled his head onto his right shoulder, a gentleman in his late-thirties coming into focus seconds later. He wore a plain, navy-blue business suit and a red neck-tie, a pair of square-framed glasses donning his nose and ears. His skin contained a yellowish hue, indicating that he was both foreign and of Asian descent.

"Stop?" Cory looked around.

Instead of a spacious, Cambridge dorm-room, Cory Hudson found himself in the interior of what appeared to be a commercial bus, complete with seats covered with soft, red fabric, white, plastic walls, swirly-patterned, public address speakers, and white rings hanging from the ceiling, which looked similar to what one might find in a park's jungle-gym. Large windows on both sides revealed a vast, urban street filled with Asians of both genders, ranging in age and height.

"Where am I?"

"Hey, Mr. Tsukino! I have a schedule to keep! If that Gaijin is not getting off, then let him be!"

Another Asian gentleman sat in the driver's seat up front. Had he not been so dazed, Cory would've criticized him for installing the steering-wheel on the wrong side of the bus.

The Asian gentleman turned towards the front of the bus. "Mr. Tanaka, be reasonable. The poor boy probably has a severe case of jet-lag. Besides, I can see the address on his bus ticket, and he'll be even more of a hassle for you later if doesn't get off here."

"All right, all right. Just get him off of here already."

With a tender smile, the Asian gentleman, whom the bus driver identified as "Mr. Tsukino", reached out his hand to help Cory up. "Come on, son. Let's get you off."

Cory took the man's hand and rose to his feet with the gentleman's kind assistance.

"Hold on."

Mr. Tsukino reached behind Cory and came back with a average-sized black-and-tan backpack, handing it to him, saying, "Don't forget your bag."

Cory took one glance at it and simply said, "This isn't mine."

"It's not? Pardon me for a moment..." Mr. Tsukino reached into the foremost pocket, which had been curiously opened, which he pulled out a small, black booklet. Flipping through a couple pages, he arrived at one closer that was closer to the center.

"This is you, isn't it?"

The page he showed Cory was the identification page of a United States passport. The page included his first and last name, his country of origin, his birth-date, his city/town and state of origin, his sex, the dates for both when the passport was issued and when it expired, and finally which department issued it.

Cory snatched the passport from Mr. Tsukino's hand, surprised at what he saw. If it was a fake, like he believed it was, it looked pretty convincing. His picture seemed kinda old; He couldn't remember the last time he'd had such long, messy hair. His town of origin and state of origin was wrong since he had been living Cambridge Massachusetts for almost five years, and Cambridge was not part of the address. His birthday, despite having the month and day correct, was off by more than several years. The final error was his surname, which he read several times over before he heard the bus-driver calling out to them again.

"Excuse me, Mr. Tsukino, Gaijin, hurry up and get off, will ya! I'm three minutes behind as is!"

"I'm very sorry, Mr. Tanaka." Mr. Tsukino said. "Come along, Cory-san. Mr. Tanaka is on a very tight schedule today. Lots of people require his services, and we are being very rude to be holding him up like this."

With a gentle push of his arm, Mr. Tsukino ushered Cory past the stream of passengers, out of the bus, and onto the side-walk. He stood by him for a few more moments as the bus's parking-brakes hissed and the large, commercial vehicle roared down the street.

"Mr. Tanaka takes much pride in his work. Because of that, he often forgets to be polite when tourists get confused."

"I'm not really a tourist," Cory said, glancing about at the unfamiliar city streets surrounding him, "but I appreciate your help."

Mr. Tsukino smiled for a moment before his expression changed to one depicting slight-shame. "Oh, forgive me. It appears that I have yet to introduce myself." Mr. Tsukino bowed. "I am Tsukino Kenji, and I am an editor for a local magazine company."

"Cory Hudson." Cory nodded. "Nice to meet you."

"The pleasure is all mine, Cory-san." Mr. Tsukino glanced down at his wristwatch. "Oh dear, I am afraid we must part now. I have a couple errands to run before I return home, and my wife is expecting me to get some groceries." Mr. Tsukino handed Cory the black-and-tan backpack. "Take care, and enjoy your stay in Tokyo."

Cory paused, unsure he had heard Mr. Tsukino correctly. "Tokyo...? Hey, wait a minute! Mr. Tsukino!"

By the time he started to voice his apprehension, Mr. Tsukino's figure had already disappeared into one of the many crowds of pedestrians walking along the street.

"Tokyo? You've gotta be kidding me! I was just in college! There's no way-"

"Shingo! Wait for me!"

Rushing through the crowd at rear came the figures of two familiar teenagers. One of them was a boy with curly, brown hair, who was dressed in a blue-and-white jacket and a pair of cargo khakis. The other was a girl with long, blonde pig-tails, who wore a white, long-sleeved shirt underneath a short dress that resembled a pair of aqua-blue overalls.

The boy stopped at the side-walk next to Cory, turning to laugh at his tired companion, who tried to scolded him before he turned towards him and cocked his head as he dug into his left-front pocket and pulled out a photograph, which he studied for a few moments before approaching him and saying, "Excuse me. Are you Reed Cory?"

Cory half-heartedly nodded his head, unable to utter a single word in response, even though he had his former name backwards.

"Oh, so you're stupid-Usagi's new classmate..."

"Shingo..." The boy's companion smacked him on the back of the head, causing him to wince as she pranced right up to Cory, a cute, incredibly-friendly smile displayed on her features as she leaned forward to introduce herself. "Hello! I am Tsukino Usagi! Welcome to Azabu-Juban!"

As if prompted by a stunt coordinator, Cory's eyes rolled into the back of his head as his legs gave out from underneath him and he fell unconscious onto the ground, his open backpack smacking the pavement and scattering several items onto the side-walk nearby.

A moment of silence passed before the girl's companion, her brother Shingo, finally said, "Usagi... I think you killed him..."


End file.
